Saturday, March 12, 2005

The Call for Restoration: A Return to Historic, Biblical Christian Creed, Faith and Practice

“Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set. Proverbs 22: 28

“The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Isaiah 42: 21-23

“…proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof…”

Leviticus 25:10

Introduction

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the Church door at Wittenberg Castle. This act is looked back upon as the official beginning of the Reformation.

In his 95 Theses, Luther simply asserted that all doctrine and practice (in particular purgatory and indulgences) which is in conflict with the Scriptures is error and a departure from the historical, biblical Christian creed, faith and practice preserved and handed down by the true church of God in ages past.

Today, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for His sake, we desire to post our own list of theses, the first of which is the issuance of the obituary of modern evangelicalism and purported fundamentalism:

Evangelicalism and fundamentalism is a corpse-----gutted, stuffed and well preserved----but dead nonetheless. Perfumed, painted and put on display, but dead. It has officially succumbed to the results of the its choices for historical disjunction and autonomy; the disaster of which Francis Schaeffer warned:

“…Here is the great evangelical disaster----the failure of the evangelical world to stand for truth as truth.” (The Great Evangelical Disaster, p. 37)

Devoid of historical context, and feeling fully capable of redefining Christ as more of a “seeker friendly” type of god…..(contrary to the Christ of ages past and contrary to the view of Christ by the church of ages past, and/or a god whose words are really not ascertainable or preserved for us), evangelicalism and fundamentalism divorced itself from its Living Head.

The self- decapitation of Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism resulted in immediate death, however, its followers for some years now have refused to believe that living without a Head is a sure sign of the cessation of life. They have sought and found another Head, attached it precariously to the Body, put this lifeless, powerless corpse on display and called it The Church. All the while attempting to disguise, (and that not too well), the familiar and pungent odor of a rotted corpse.

We, therefore, in the interest of truth, and as believers in and partakers of a living and resurrected Christ who is revealed to us in the scriptures, officially declare that evangelicalism is dead; Christ is Eternal! The King Lives forever!

Self-decapitation, the forsaking of historical, biblical Christian creed, faith and practice, (and therefore the forsaking of God Himself), was the cause of death. The body will continue to be shown in state until it is mercifully buried.

The results of this self-decapitation are many:

In our seminaries: men are now taught, and in turn teach, that the Bible is insufficient for the entirety of life and higher criticism of the text is rampant.

In our churches: the authority and sufficiency of Christ in the totality of life is compromised and people no longer attend the church meeting to be trained and hear a message from God Himself, but the new agenda is to simply feel good as a result of the experience, retreat from the world of human existence and Biblical duty and hope for the immediate release of all responsibility by the Second Coming of Christ.

In our lives: autonomy and self-deception are the rule and not the exception. Feelings and emotions determine our every day lives and pursuits instead of truth.

This scenario is not new. Many have faced very similar situations:

There is an answer to this disaster, and many lives and the existence of our country are in the balance. A restoration of historical biblical Christian creed, faith and practice is the only answer and a return to a Living God as known in the scriptures.

I have been searching for tools to help bring about this restoration, to train a people that would EFFECT what our fore fathers effected and affect the world in which we live in the same manner as did they. Thank the Lord these tools are now being sought after and being made available again:

Creeds and Confessions

Canons of Dordt

Westminster Confession

London Baptist Confession

Catechisms

Heidelberg Cathechism

Westminster Catechism

Spurgeon’s Catechism

Keach’s Catechism

Authors

John Wycliffe

William Tyndale

The Reformers

The Puritans

The training of old started almost categorically with the purpose of man and then directly lead to who God is and how He can be known.

Based on the measuring stick of the past, current Christian Creed (of which there is little), Faith and Practice is a direct slander and liable on the Person and Character of God.

In defining the purpose of man all other activity in which man is engaged is brought under the jurisdiction and authority of the Creator----the canon, the measuring stick against which everything is measured and the ultimate point of reference is taken for the totality of life.

Why Catechisms?

Why Creeds?

Why Confessions?

"Reader, remember this: if thy knowledge do not now affect thy heart, it will at last, with a witness, afflict thy heart; if it do not now endear Christ to thee, it will at last provoke Christ the more against thee; if it do not make all the things of Christ to be very precious in thy eyes, it will at last make thee the more vile in Christ's eyes." Thomas Brooks

“No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter, who doth not in some measure behold it by faith here in this world. Grace is a necessary preparation for glory, and faith for sight Where the subject (the soul) is not previously seasoned with grace and faith, it is not capable of glory or vision. Nay, persons not disposed hereby unto it cannot desire it, whatever they pretend; they only deceive their own souls in supposing that so they do. Most men will say with confidence, living and dying, that they desire to be with Christ, and to behold his glory; but they can give no reason why they should desire any such thing,-only they think it somewhat that is better than to be in that evil condition which otherwise they must be cast into for ever, when they can be here no more. If a man pretend himself to be enamoured on, or greatly to desire, what he never saw, nor was ever represented unto him, he doth but dote on his own imaginations. And the pretended desires of many to behold the glory of Christ in heaven, who have no view of it by faith whilst they are there in this world are nothing but self-deceiving imaginations.” John Owen, The Glory of Christ

“The great advantage which would arise to Christendom from the existence of something approaching to a general religious uniformity must be apparent to every reflecting mind, both as a general homage to the certainties of revealed truth, and as itself the master element of general harmony anti peace.

But it is contrary alike to the nature of religion and to the constitution of the human mind, to suppose that this desirable object can be obtained by compulsion. Open, candid, brother-like consultation may do much, when Christian men fairly and honestly wish to arrive at as close a degree of uniformity, in doctrine, worship, and government; as can be attained, with due respect to liberty and integrity of conscience. It was for this very purpose that the Westminster Assembly was called, and that Scottish divines were requested to be present at and aid in its deliberations. This was right, and bore fair prospect and promise of good; but mutual jealousies and rivalries arose; men misjudged and misinterpreted each other’s intentions; and the intrigues of mere worldly politicians intermingled with, biased, and baffled far higher and holier objects than those with which such men are usually conversant. Probably the two parties of a religious character (we speak not now of mere Erastians), of whom the Assembly was composed, the Presbyterians and the Independents, were both in error; probably they both entertained narrower conceptions of the nature of religious uniformity, and also of religious toleration and liberty, than the terms, rightly understood, imply. Uniformity is not necessarily absolute identity. Neither of these two parties held that absolute identity was necessary, as appears from their respective writings; but each of them dreaded that nothing less than absolute identity would satisfy the other, and to that neither of them could agree. And this misapprehension was enough, not only to prevent the accomplishment of the purpose for which they met, but even to act as a wedge, rending them daily more widely and hopelessly asunder.”

In Scotland its results were more directly and signally beneficial, being fully accepted by the Church, and ratified by the State. Not even twenty-eight years of ruthless persecution could extinguish the bright light of sacred truth which it had contributed to shed over our own northern hills, or trample out of existence the strong spirit of liberty which it inspired and hallowed. What can ever expel from the mind and heart of a Christian people that single sentence of the Confession of Faith: "God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship." The people who can feel and understand that sacred truth can never be enslaved. And although, after the Union, the perfidy of traitorous statesmen introduced the unconstitutional element of patronage into the external arrangements of the Church of Scotland, contrary to the express stipulations of the Act of Security, by which the Scottish nation had so anxiously sought to protect their National Church; yet it required the lapse of generations to produce a race sufficiently degenerated to allow the pernicious element to do its work. Even when a majority of the Scottish ministers had become unfaithful, the Confession of Faith and the Catechism continued to infuse their strong and living principles of Christian truth into the hearts and minds of the people, maintaining a spirit and an energy that nothing could subdue. The effect of this was seen in the Secession; and not less manifestly in the deep and steady devotedness with which the ministrations of evangelical truth were attended in the Established Church itself. A recent and still more signal manifestation of the power of these principles was displayed in the memorable Disruption of 1843, when, in vindication of their truth, and to secure the liberty of maintaining them, four hundred and seventy-four ministers gave up all connection with the State, and all the advantages thence arising, rather than surrender spiritual freedom in obedience to Christ alone. Such was the state of the Churches in both kingdoms throughout the listless length of a dreary century, – the still and heavy torpor of lethargic sluggishness above, the silent but strong current of a deep life-stream beneath.

History of the Westminster Divines, Hetherington, W.M.

Evangelicalism, with its relative lack of creedal formulas and the absence of strong ecclesiastical structures, moreover, has always been susceptible to the cult of personality, a weakness only magnified by television. Evangelicals once harbored a healthy—though, at times, excessive—suspicion of worldliness, but they too have been infected by the culture of celebrity.

Although evangelicals have always been citational in the expression of their beliefs, the fixation on celebrity in the last couple of decades has produced an important shift. Evangelicals once referred directly to the Bible as the basis for their theology, but now, more often than not, the citation has been filtered through the celebrity preacher:"As Dr. Swindoll says…," or "As Dr. Schuller says…," or "Dr.Dobson believes that…."

Are our interests the interests of heaven?

Are our pursuits the pursuits of heaven?

Are our lives demonstrations of the presence of the God of Heaven?

Do we love the things that God loves and hate the things that God hates?

The Church lies in ruins; exposed to the world as a harlot and tramp.

The Church is the Pillar and ground of the Truth….without Christ demonstrating and defending and declaring Truth through the Church, the world lies at the mercy of the devil and his deception and lies.

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